Foraging Pigs…Imagine That!

I’m always looking for blog topics- in the paper, in a magazine and simply by observing things and people around me.

Often, I’ll tear something out of the Times and add it to my ‘topics to blog about’ list.

I just came across one such article from January, entitled, Let Them Eat Acorns, about Farmer Joel Salatin, who ‘raises his pigs the old-fashioned way, in the great outdoors, at his farm near Swoope, Va’.

It’s no surprise that what he stands for and what he does; unfortunately, he’s in the minority.

Did you know that 90 percent of America’s pork is produced in huge confinement operations (the largest, Smithfield, is now owned by a Chinese corporation)?

Some of his critics argue “he is cheating the notion of sustainability by feeding his pigs grain that he does not grow himself”.

While I am definitely more inclined to buy pastured pork from farmers whose pigs forage for acorns and the like, I’d still prefer to go the route of a pastured pig that was raised humanely and ate grain than to support an outfit that treats the poor creatures in humanely with nothing other than profit margins in mind.

Just as in situations where things aren’t black and white, we sometimes have to pick the next best option than what we’d choose as our ideal.